A Weekend in Newcastle, NSW – Part 1

The year following our visit to Medlow Bath, we decided to spend our anniversary weekend in the city of Newcastle, NSW. Newcastle is a pretty common town name in Commonwealth countries. In the UK, Newcastle is a port city in the north-east of England. In New South Wales, it is a port city some 160km north-east of Sydney.

It began life as a penal colony in 1804, and like its UK namesake, became an industrial city, with a steel works and other heavy industries being established at the turn of the 20th Century. The steel works were shut down at the end of the century, but its port remains a busy place, with ships docking day and night to export Hunter Valley coal to the world.

The city has a long history, hence it has a good variety of heritage buildings.

There’s currently a lot of urban renewal projects in the CBD, but I’m happy that quite a few of the old buildings have been preserved and repurposed.

Weekend at Medlow Bath – Part 2

To be honest, it wasn’t the chance to be in an open Agatha Christie ‘museum’ that excited me the most about staying at the Hydro, it was actually the chance to see the Megalong Valley views at all times of the day.

The chance to live through a few days with that view was really worth the effort.

That’s the end of our short stay at Medlow Bath. I’ll be back with another series about another town in New South Wales.

Weekend at Medlow Bath – Part 1

Awhile ago, we spent a luxurious anniversary weekend at the Hydro Majestic in Medlow Bath, in the Upper Blue Mountains. The Hydro is a heritage hotel with a very illustrious history, and walking in felt like walking on to the set of Downton Abbey/Agatha Christie. To a Sydney-sider who has driven west on the Great Western Highway numerous times over the years, it felt like the hotel had been in renovation forever (well, it did take decades to complete). Well, it’s finished now.

But more than being on a live film set, I was more interested in seeing the awesome views of the Megalong Valley. It did not disappoint.

More views in the next post.

Bundeena – A Retreat – Part 5

The highlight of the walk for me was the carvings on the sandstone platforms. The Royal National Park is in Dharawal country. This country stretches from the southern shores of Botany Bay, west to Campbelltown, and as far south as the Shoalhaven River in Nowra.

The Dharawal are saltwater people, and the carvings of their food sources – mostly sea-creatures – illustrates that. This is an education site, teaching the young men about hunting.

Elsewhere on the walk I encountered more fabulously weathered sandstone, a real highlight on any walk in the Sydney Basin coastline.

We’ve come to the end of our little Bundeena retreat. Next time, I’ll start off on new series somewhere in New South Wales.